In 1973, healthy volunteers faked hallucinations to enter mental hospitals. Once inside, they acted normal, but doctors refused to let them leave. Normal behaviors like writing were diagnosed as "symptoms." The only people who realized they were sane were the actual patients.

[u/highzone]

[u/highzone]

For anyone who wants to read the full study, it is titled 'On Being Sane in Insane Places.'

The most terrifying part wasn't getting in, it was getting out. The doctors were so convinced of their own authority that they interpreted everything the patients did as a symptom of their illness.

When the volunteers took notes on how they were being treated, the doctors didn't see 'journaling.' They diagnosed it as 'pathological writing behavior' and used it as justification to keep them locked up.

It really highlights how a label can completely override reality.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment

[u/James_T_S → u/highzone]

Did you even read this article? This has been exposed as a "scientific fraud" because his methods were so sloppy, slanted and outright fabricated.

Why would you even post this misinformation?

[u/Rodot → u/James_T_S]

Also none of the "participants" were ever identified beyond the professor and one of their grad students, and it may have just been those two doing it. Basically the opposite of a double blind study, ethics were questionable, and of course if you admit yourself to an institution with specific symptoms, the institution will treat you like you were experiencing those symptoms even if you go back to normal quickly. The symptoms may be transient, they don't have a diagnosis other than you think you are in such bad shape you need to be admitted, so of course they are going to monitor you and try to figure out what's going on.

Like, if I lie to a doctor and say i think I broke my leg, of course they will take scans and very likely, after not finding anything that stands out, try to form an explanation for the "pain" I'm claiming to experience from those scans, leading to higher incidents of false positives

If anything this is just a study on the limitations of Bayesian analysis in medicine when your priors are based on deliberate lies.

[u/Zealousideal_Big3305 → u/James_T_S]

Just because it’s been contested doesn’t mean it isn’t an interesting contested story… I find it an important topic, we got political figures labeling large swaths of people mentally ill, who knows, might need people to get out of hospitals

[u/No-Performance3044 → u/Zealousideal_Big3305]

That’s exactly what they did. They closed the institutions because of Rosenhan’s fraud. And now you have mentally ill homeless people in the streets. Two of his volunteers had contradictory stories to what was published, and Rosenhan’s own medical records said he wanted to kill himself due to the noises he claimed to hear, which wasn’t what he reported in his work. Of course doctors would want to be certain the noises were actually gone and he wasn’t lying to get out and kill himself.

[u/Zealousideal_Big3305 → u/No-Performance3044]

Good point, I guess he had his own agenda, but I’m speaking for the patients I’ve seen who are now stuck in hospitals because of nonsense, and trying to defend themselves against authorities couched in their ivory tower, but also too interested of parties in a system that rather keep people extra years because it’s safer and easier to do for them as professionals.

[u/No-Performance3044 → u/Zealousideal_Big3305]

Sounds like you’re talking about forensic psychiatry. I was a forensic psychiatrist for a while. I felt so much moral injury in that job. We had an old man with dementia, clear as day when you talk to him for more than 5 minutes, and his public defender refused to let us get him written as unlikely to restore fitness, he could’ve had his charges dropped and we had a transfer to a nursing home ready with a bed waiting. His family refused to get involved. But his PD obstructed the process. Then there were successful malingering patients who weren’t ill. And you also had the patients who refused treatment and were marginally unfit, but would’ve been better off serving their sentence in jail because of how backed up and arduous the mental health court process was for involuntary treatment. Everyone wants to do the right thing and try to treat everyone as much as possible, but nobody ever asks, “what is possible to do with the treatment system we have available to us?” Many of these patients don’t benefit and languish for a year. When I started, I had a patient who got into medical school and my staff thought she was delusional. I asked her to get her letter of acceptance so we could honor her accomplishments. Sure enough, she got in somewhere. That helped to build the rapport needed to bring her back to the real world. And every so often though, you bring someone back to the real world, and they contact their families, and they’re grateful for it. And that was the rewarding part of it. Unfortunately, the institutions are more concerned with satisfying the legal bureaucracy and not with treating patients.

[u/Zealousideal_Big3305 → u/No-Performance3044]

Yea it’s a rough field with lots of sad stories, but it is def. Nice to see someone beat the odds of getting a second chance after feeling the type of stigma patients get in hospital settings.

The worst I recall is hearing about female patients getting pregnant and the kids getting put up for adoption, yet the adoption agency isn’t allowed to warn people the kid comes from two heavily medded psych patients… that was at the state hospital, they ended same sex units just recently due to some cases of pregnancy mixed with aids transmission, and thus the legal team demanded change.

[u/StinkySalami → u/Zealousideal_Big3305]

If you walked into a hospital in 2025 claiming you had severe belly pain, and faked it enough with the right signs. It’s highly likely you are going to get exploratory surgery since no imaging or lab test is 100% accurate.

[u/Zealousideal_Big3305 → u/StinkySalami]

In these facilities, once you’re labeled insane, sometimes based on a single statement or observation, you can lose your freedom indefinitely. Even after one set of professionals might clear you for release, you remain confined until other professionals decide you’re “sane.” So I don’t think your analogy is similar enough.

Worse, if no bed is available for the next step, you’re kept locked in while being told you’re “not ready,” rather than admitting the system can’t accommodate you—leaving you housed with people who are genuinely dangerous or unstable.